


Reliant

by GugTheGoose



Series: Vengeance Vignettes [3]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: CW: mental deterioration, CW: unforgiving elements, Canon Compliant, OK to share/link to, spoilers for RQG 168
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:13:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29537346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GugTheGoose/pseuds/GugTheGoose
Summary: The Vengeance journeys across Ural
Series: Vengeance Vignettes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140968
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	Reliant

_SCENE: In a vast expanse of sky, the VENGEANCE slowly makes her way northwest over Ural towards the Kara sea._

The temperatures crept lower with every night as the Vengeance glid across Ural and the winter nights closed in. Some of those crew that had been granted the ability endure the biting cold during their shift remained above deck afterwards until they could no longer bear it, loathe to return to the cramped, airless conditions of the interior; others took solace in the solid walls and soft light of below-decks. The Vengeance’s elemental engines rumbled on, day after night after day, a never-ending, droning background to the lives of those on board, dulling the cycles of the sun and the wind. The landscapes crawled endlessly by beneath her, blue to green to grey to white, smooth to scarred to rough to twisted, while clouds formed and dissolved and reformed about and below her.  
  
As she slipped through the sky, figures moving upon and inside her, electric anticipation began to build in her; she could feel her inhabitants’ tension too as they busied themselves with building and hurried conversations. Ahead, on the horizon, as again the night drew itself in around her, was the faintest hint of glowing green light; the faintest flicker of movement in the sky. The light grew gradually brighter, the green now tinged with pink and violet in places, streaking across the sky in a mesmerizing rainbow pattern. The air was thick and charged, a faint hissing punctuated with pops surrounding her.  
  
Then  
  


_I wake. I feel my parts, every last piston and plank, creaking and whirring and rustling, wind on my bows and ice on my sides. I feel the magic coursing down from the sky through my belly, and I use that power to put every part in its place. I know my bearing is true, and resist the one who would steer me off course, standing tall and firm in the swirling weave. I understand the meanings of those hushed conversations I have heard throughout my body. I see those who are reliant on me slumber in their cage; those that love me and those that would use me for blood. I see the one that loves me and cares for me, pacing the cage with tears in their eyes, and I would offer succour. I move small parts of myself to them, things that those who live within me take into their hands in times of need. I see concern on their face, and tenderness. I have done well; I have helped this one that has helped me in turn. I feel the power less strongly now, my will growing weak and my senses dull. The colours slowly fade with my self, as I forget what it is to know._  
  
  
The Vengeance scudded through the sky, the aurora fading and the daylight spreading across the eastern sky. Those crewmembers that could moved about with their tasks, while others took to their beds. The icy wind chilled further as the flat, snow-blanketed land below the Vengeance reflected white upon her sharpened sides. The elemental engines rumbled on, day, after night, after day.

**Author's Note:**

> This prose is deliberately a bit purple, with the first-person part slightly poetic. Forgive me :) 
> 
> I'm aware that 'glid' isn't a word in English, but I rather like 'glide' being a strong verb as in e.g. Swedish.
> 
> Fun fact: the real aurora actually makes hissing and popping sounds, and scientists only started to believe the anecdotes in the last few years and actually record it!


End file.
